Re: The Backlog Thread

[SanAndreasX]

So I was cleaning my room today. I had purchased a new stand to put all my games in and as I was arranging them when I realized I own more games that I have not played or finished than ones have have completed. Its kind of sad actually. I feel like more of a collector than a gamer sometimes.

Ha, sometimes this kind of applies to me too. I look at my gaming shelves. I have enough games to play one game per day for about two years and never see the same game twice. And I like to think I'm picky about my game-buying.

This year alone, I have Bravely Default (my GoTY so far), One Piece Romance Dawn, Tales of Symphonia HD, FFX/X2 HD, Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends on PS4, Wonderful 101. I want to get Mario Kart 8 when it comes out. I play what I buy, but it's hard to finish it all especially when I've been so busy. I'm going to spend my summer gaming now that I have more free time from work and school.

Honestly, I'm used to having a huge game library. When I was a third-grader in 1980-whatever, we had an Atari 130XE computer, which was basically an Atari 5200 with a keyboard, a disk drive, and the ability to use good 2600 joysticks instead of the godawful 5200 ones. My uncle had access to a hacking community for the Atari XE back in those days, and when we got the computer, he sent me a huge cardboard box with about a thousand games on floppy disk, ranging from ports of all the popular arcade games, and the Atari XE had the best arcade ports of its time, seriously, it had a better version of Donkey Kong than the NES did, old RPGs, and a lot of games made specifically for the Atari XE. That computer was a big reason why I never had a NES, although I'd have loved to have had my own copies of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Dragon Warrior.

Then when I got Game Boy and SNES, I couldn't afford to buy a lot of games for them. My Atari's disk drive wasn't working by that point, so I had to put up with a lot of game droughts and got used to replaying games ad nauseam. I beat Super Mario Land about a hundred times the first year I had a Game Boy. The first year I got a SNES I was cycling between Zelda, Mortal Kombat II, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

Then I got my own job, my own income, bought a PS1, and once again went buckwild on the games.

One problem is that a lot of the games I like are niche and get really hard to find if you don't buy them within the first two weeks after they come out. I missed out on too many games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Tales of Destiny PS1, so if there's a game I know I'm going to want and I know it's going to be scarce, I'll go ahead and pick it up. The most recent game of this type I bought was One Piece Romance Dawn for the 3DS.

[pspiddy]

One problem is that a lot of the games I like are niche and get really hard to find if you don't buy them within the first two weeks after they come out. I missed out on too many games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Tales of Destiny PS1, so if there's a game I know I'm going to want and I know it's going to be scarce, I'll go ahead and pick it up.

Amen to this. All though sometimes I gamble on a price drop. I gambled with the Xillia CE and was rewarded. I gambled on Xenoblade Wii and lost.

[SanAndreasX]

One problem is that a lot of the games I like are niche and get really hard to find if you don't buy them within the first two weeks after they come out. I missed out on too many games like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Tales of Destiny PS1, so if there's a game I know I'm going to want and I know it's going to be scarce, I'll go ahead and pick it up.

Amen to this. All though sometimes I gamble on a price drop. I gambled with the Xillia CE and was rewarded. I gambled on Xenoblade Wii and lost.

My biggest regrets in game acquisition:

Not buying Panzer Dragoon Saga in 1998-1999 (now it's $400 and up. I bought the UK version in 2011)
Not buying a LOT of Saturn games like Burning Rangers or Magic Knight Rayearth
Not buying Tales of Destiny or Tales of Destiny II in that same time period (did get good deals on both at Vintage Stock though).
Not getting the Collectors' Edition of Tales of Vesperia
Not getting Suikoden II new. Again, got a good deal at the Norman Vintage Stock. However, that game may end up on PSN very soon, if recent reports prove true.
Not getting my Ni no Kuni Wizard's Edition, but that was Digital River's fault, not mine. I got the free hardcover guide, so yay?

[KillaAssassin11]

When I buy games I usually have the intention of playing through them but I tend to get distracted easy. As I've gotten older my gaming time decreases so I have to be a little more picky with what I play. The biggest victim is the longer games like RPG's. I put Persona 3 on the back burner again recently for the second time. Not because I wasn't enjoying it but because other games came out and distracted me.

[A Roguish Ham]

I seem to always gamble wrong on games I should / shouldn't pick up at full price. Plus I always look for stuff on disk so... yeah...

[avidacridjam]

A few weeks back I bought all the DLC for Skyrim and Fallout 3 so I intend to launch into those.

I've owned Mass Effect 3 since the week it was released and I have yet to play the campaign. The MP has been that fruitful. I also want to play through Mass Effect 2 again and this time romance Tali. It was also help if the DLC for both games could go on sale again.

I haven't finished Bioshock Infinite, Ni No Kuni, Just Cause 2, Jak & Daxter Collection, The Sly Collection, LOZ: Skyward Sword, KOTOR (Xbox), Skies of Arcadia Legends, among many others.

These days, the majority of my gaming time happens on the weekends unless the strength of a certain game can make me put in a couple of hours each day (the way Diablo 3 has recently).

I think I've embarrassed myself enough. The rabbit hole goes deeper than that if I think about it long enough.

[pspiddy]

There is no finishing Just Cause 2 if that make you feel any better. Once you get homedude to drop you off near any airstrip, game on

[SanAndreasX]

A friend of mine put it best: Don't worry about "beating" games. It just puts stress on you and then you've lost the whole narrative of video gaming.

[A Roguish Ham]

A friend of mine put it best: Don't worry about "beating" games. It just puts stress on you and then you've lost the whole narrative of video gaming.

 Meh, my problem is I put down an RPG with every intent of coming back to it after I play a quick 'action' title, but then completely forget what I was doing and how the finer mechanics work.

[Rainjar]

A friend of mine put it best: Don't worry about "beating" games. It just puts stress on you and then you've lost the whole narrative of video gaming.

This is why I have so many games on the backlog now. Instead of spending my free time playing video games I spend my free time doing absolutely nothing instead. Worst advice ever, would not take again.

[Krubixcube]

I see what San is saying, if you worry too much about beating your games then playing them feels like a number game, some statistic that has to be improved as opposed to just playing a game and enjoying it. I've felt myself doing that sometimes when playing games I don't particularly enjoy.

[KillaAssassin11]

Speaking from experience I have a lot more fun when I just play what I feel like playing. For a while there I was forcing myself to try and play games so I could have something to talk about on the podcast I record for my site. Now I'm back to just playing what I want and what I have time for. There are a few regrets for games I have yet to finished but overall I am content.

[ajapam]

I understand that but sometimes when I just play what I want to play, I end up just playing that game out of habit because I can't get into anything else. Then I get kind of tired and don't really play anything. That's basically what happened with GTA5

My biggest gaming regret right now is that I've only played my copy of Radiant Historia once. Never even got to the combat but I really want to get back to it

[volvocrusher]

I don't see myself as having a backlog. I see myself as having distractions to pass the time in between Mass Effect playthroughs.

[Krubixcube]

If it makes you feel better Radiant Historia was one of my biggest disappointments...

[A Roguish Ham]

I will slap all haters of Radiant Historia.

[volvocrusher]

There's never a bad excuse to slap T-Wolf.

[Krubixcube]

That's what mom always used to say.

[pspiddy]

That's what mom always used to say.

HA! Oh you clever kitty you.

I want to attempt the Mass Effect trilogy and the Jak trilogy this summer. Those are priorities on my backlog list. Out of all six games I have only played the first ME. One of the best games I have ever played.

[KillaAssassin11]

Havent decided for sure but I think either Tales of the Abyss or Persona 3 Portable are on the top of my backlog. Ive started both but stopped to play other games.

[Krubixcube]

If you genuinely liked the first ME, ME2 and 3 are MUCH faster and more enjoyable to play (no item management/long stretches of empty planet to explore etc)

[pspiddy]

I'm timid about attempting ME2; 1 had such goood combat and I keep reading here, and other places, 2 fucks it up. Fuck it, Greenie, want to do a ME1 play through with me? Or anyone else, for that matter ...

[Krubixcube]

What 2 fucks up isn't the combat mechanics themselves but the mechanics behind it. The leveling system doesn't require as much fiddling which, you being the fiddly type, will probably dislike. For the roleplaying and pacing of hte story though it's infinitely better. ME3 kind of mixes the 2.

And I would but very recently played through it and I don't have greenie's stamina for replaying games that closely together.

[volvocrusher]

I actually just did a ME playthrough a couple months ago, but I could go for another when I build my PC.

[pspiddy]

Let me know when you want to do the play through. I'll do all 3 iffin that's what you call for.

[volvocrusher]

You can't play Mass Effect 1 without playing 2 and you can't play Mass Effect 2 without playing 3.

[pspiddy]

Do you mean my backlog of ME 2 and 3 will be crossed of my backlog in the backlog thread? What about the children?

[volvocrusher]

[pspiddy]

See, that is why I love Greenie.

[volvocrusher]

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